Spider Crickets: The Bug in Your House That Can Eat You Alive

Sometimes in fall or winter you'll find a writhing mass of strange-looking bugs lurking under a cabinet or in your business. Looking something like a shrimp with long legs, spider crickets jump directly at what frightens them when they are startled. If you bend over to inspect the bugs that will shortly renew your interest in home pest control, you'll get a face full of bugs.

It's not a pleasant experience.

Also known as cave crickets, camel crickets (due to their beige exoskeleton), sprickets, and mutant spiders, spider crickets like to forage together. They have long, drumstick-like legs, just six, since they aren't actually spiders. They have long antennae that help them navigate in the dark. Males of the species have spikes on their legs that help them secure the attention of an unwilling female when they want to mate. The males' legs secrete a pheromone that attracts masses of females long after they leave the scene. Females of the species appear to have a "stinger," but they don't actually sting. The long appendage on the female's hind end is an ovipositor, a tube for laying eggs.

When spider crickets find a food source, they congregate by the hundreds. Normally dining on mold, fungus, paper, or decaying leaves and plant matter, they are also capable of taking a painful bite out of human skin (although pet shop owners who sell them and insect enthusiasts are more likely to describe the bite as an "annoyance").

No one is going to lie down for a nap in a house infested with spider crickets only to be discovered as a skeleton picked clean the next day. However, spider crickets can harbor parasites known as nematodes. Cricket enthusiasts correctly point out that the creepy insects carry the parasitic nematode Pterygodermatites peromysci that they spread from mouse feces back to the next mouse that eats them, and that this parasite does not harm humans (so the crickets must be harmless, right?). However, what isn't reported in many places is that they can also carry a parasite called Hymenolepis nana. It's not a common infection, by any means, but it can cause diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, and a very itchy anus. This nematode can be spread from cricket to human during its bite, which is also, well, kind of gross.

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A memorable if somewhat crude way of explaining spider cricket bites is that these bugs have mandibles that they use for eating fungus and moldy paper. The appendages aren't really "teeth." Under a magnifying glass, they look something like crab claws.  However, the spider cricket also has "pinchers" around its anus. Not only can this insect bite you on the ass, it can bite you with its ass. This increases the likelihood you will get a nematode infection from contact with the bug.

The people most at risk for this kind of infection are the very young and the very old. People who can't move when they feel an insect bite are the most likely to suffer multiple bites.

Home Pest Control for Spider Crickets

For a few hundred dollars, you can get an exterminator to do a pest inspection and get rid of spider crickets. However, it's best to prevent the infestation before it starts with a few simple home pest control steps.

1. It's important to seal doors, floors, and windows where spider crickets can come into your home. This is particularly important for basement windows and any windows next to flowers boxes. Any container of compost makes a good home for a spider cricket, especially in damp weather.
2. Spider crickets don't like light. Keeping lights on drives them away. If you have a way to turn on the lights in crawl spaces, you can keep them out of your walls and cabinets. If not, some kind of in-closet and under-the-cabinet lighting also helps for getting rid of the bugs.

1. Winter is the time spider crickets look for places to hibernate. In nature, they would gather in piles of debris. A stack of firewood is similarly attractive. Don't stack wood close to the house, and trim shrubs and trees so that they are not within jumping distance (up to a meter) of your house. A shrub can serve as a highway for bugs as temperatures begin to fall.
2. It helps to get rid of clutter. Stacks of papers and magazines retain moisture and serve as food for the crickets. If you need to store paper, keep it dry, and keep it in containers.
3. Spider crickets thrive on humidity. A dehumidifier reduces their numbers, especially in basements and garages.
4. You can avoid infections by making sure you don't handle frass (cricket poop, mostly tiny black dots that look something like ground black pepper) with your bare hands, or at least wash your hands after removing it. This is how the crickets can spread nematodes to mice and other mammals, including humans.
5. In the United States, Asian spider crickets have established in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, St. Louis, and points in between. Luggage and furniture from this part of the country should be inspected before its brought into your house. Spider crickets are still relatively rare west of the Rockies.

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1. Spider crickets often live with an actual spider called an orb weaver. In ideal conditions, this spider can grow as wide as 9 cm (3-1/2 inches). The spider is scary, but not poisonous. Spider crickets don't attract orb weavers, but the orb weavers may feed on them.
2. Cedar oil and cedar sachets are a natural deterrent to spider crickets. The essential oils don't kill them, but they reduce the growth of the molds and fungi on which the crickets feed. Peppermint oil keeps out crickets and the mice that can feed on and spread infection from them.
3. Vacuuming up spider crickets only works if you remove them from the vacuum cleaner outside your home when you are done. Many bugs will die in the vacuum cleaner, but some will survive, and eat the dead bodies of the other crickets.
4. Sticky boards aren't a very effect tool for controlling spider crickets. Mice can come along and eat the trapped bugs, and the odor of decaying male crickets attracts still more crickets.